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Hello people of the interwebs! Glad you found me, and thanks for reading! ^^ This is just my general all-purpose blog about my life, although mostly my life seems to focus around my ball jointed dolls. Please follow/subscribe so you don't miss any updates. Also, feel free to leave comments! Check out my other social networking links too - I love making friends.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

I knitted my first hat today! I bought a set of knitting looms the other day, and a book with instructions. The basic hat was the first project in the book, so I gave it a whirl this morning. The smallest loom in the set is supposed to be for tiny baby hats, but I was hoping it'd also be the right size for doll hats. And it is! I think if I make the stitching tighter next time, I can make the hat a little smaller, because right now it seems a little big to me. But I'm also trying it on my doll that doesn't have a wig yet, so maybe once she has a wig, the hat will fit just right. Either way, I'm excited and proud of myself. ^_^

I decided that I really wanted to get back into crafts. Doing creative and artistic things is good for me. It's relaxing and also when I'm done I feel proud and accomplished. So I've made a point to set aside time to do crafts. I bought several craft books and also some new art/craft supplies to get me started again.

Besides a few little projects here and there, I really want to focus on learning to sew and knit clothes for my dolls. So I've started with loom knitting. It's been a long time since I tried to learn knitting, but so far I'm really getting a hang of the loom knitting.

It stormed last night and has been kinda rainy and overcast here today, which is perfect weather to stay curled up in bed and work on my knitting. (:

Sunday, July 10, 2011

While browsing Amazon not too long ago, I found a doll advertised as a "Kid Delf" for sale for a really good price. I couldn't identify it as a Kid Delf - turns out she was actually a Blue Fairy doll (Tiny Fairy Sarang). I bought her because it was too good of a deal to pass up.

Things got a little weird after that. I got a notice that my money was refunded. The doll was marked as shipped, and I didn't request to cancel the order, so I don't know why that happened. I contacted the seller through Amazon to find out why. Instead of getting an email reply, I got a phone call from the company the next day demanding that I deposit money into their bank account for the doll since they already shipped her. The person on the phone barely spoke any English, so it was very difficult to understand. I have no idea about transferring money into bank accounts, and that just sounds fishy to me, so we agreed (I think?) that I would just purchase the doll again on Amazon so that they would get their money. I wanted to wait until the doll arrived though, but as it turns out, the company no longer has the item listed on Amazon, so there's no way for me to re-purchase it anyway.

The doll arrived later that day. I opened the package and... it wasn't the doll depicted on the item listing. Instead of the Tiny Fairy Sarang, with her cute smiling face and blue eyes, the doll that stared back at me from the box had a frown and green eyes. A quick browse of Blue Fairy's website, and I was able to identify her as Olive.

Life is pretty great right now. I have an awesome boyfriend, I've made some new friends who share some of my interests, and I'm having fun with my hobbies. (:

So first about my boyfriend, he really makes me happy. I think spending time with him and going out places and such has also been helping me get over some of my social anxiety and shyness. I don't think I would have had the courage to go to my first doll meet-up with a bunch of strangers if it had been six months ago, for example. But he is just lots of fun to be around and we can be silly and he is always so sweet. ^^

One thing I'm pretty happy with is getting back into my hobbies and taking time to do more arts and crafty type stuff. I've been a bit doll crazy lately - I had kind of put that aside for awhile, but then finding sort-of-local doll friends has really resparked my interest. Too bad they're three hours away, but it's better than not having any doll friends at all. I also found out about a doll shop that's just five minutes from my house! Crazy. It's tucked away and hidden from the rest of the world.

I've done a few little crafts here and there, like making a present for my boyfriend, but I've got some other things I want to get back into, like knitting and sewing. I'm going to give loom knitting a try, hopefully my loom will come in the mail in the next couple of days. I think it's good to be creative and productive. ^_^

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I went to my first doll meet-up today. It was a very spur-of-the-moment trip since I just found the group (and found out about the meet-up) on Friday, but I'm so glad I went!

My boyfriend spent the night Monday night since he was going out of town on Tuesday to visit some friends. So the plan was that we'd both get up early and both get an early start on our trips. For me to get to the meet-up, it would be a three hour drive. So to get there at 9am, I'd have to leave at 6am. At first that seemed like a good idea, but as we were sitting up at 12:30am discussing how not tired we were, Boyfriend and I decided maybe getting a later start wouldn't be the end of the world. :p So I left the house at 8:00ish, and let Boyfriend sleep in a little longer. I made really good time and got to the meet-up before 11:00. ^_^

Everyone was super friendly and welcoming. I'm very shy and quiet until I get used to people and open up a bit, but they all seemed pretty understanding and were very nice to me. Even though everyone else had obviously known each other for a while, I didn't feel like they were clique-y or that I was an outsider.

I brought Madeline and Kaelyn (my new Hujoo Berry). Kaelyn was a big hit! Everyone loved her and thought she was adorable. There were soooo many pretty dolls of all types! o___o I couldn't believe my eyes. There were over thirty dolls which was apparently the most of any meet-up the group had previously had.

I can't wait until I can make it to another meet-up. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the August one, but maybe I can make it to the August Tea Party instead (it's a separate meet-up, but a lot of the members overlap apparently, and people come dressed up and bring dolls too).

Here is Kaelyn with someone's stuffed bunny. We had to go get her one of her own on the way home. (:

Sunday, July 3, 2011

She got here yesterday morning while my boyfriend was over, so I had to wait until he left that night to take her out and play with her. She's adooooorable and I'm already quite fond of her. ^____^

She's a limited edition full set so she came with the clothes, wig and some green eyes - however the green eyes were very cartoony so I bought some simple blue ones for her instead. I have to say, I love how the Hujoo's dolls have their eyes fitted in. Instead of using eye putty, they have little plastic holders that hold the eyeballs in place and then slip over some pegs above and below the eyes. SO much easier.

Despite being plastic, Hujoo are very BJD-ish in my opinion. Much more than the Dollfie Plus which really just seems more like a Barbie doll type doll to me. I think the fact that they are strung really makes a difference.

Anyway, here's a picture of her. :D

I still don't have a name figured out for her yet, but hopefully I'll come up with something soon. (:

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Well, I was going to post today about how I was really excited to find doll stands at Hobby Lobby for a few bucks a piece (which is cheap to me considering how much they'd cost to buy them from the actual doll companies plus shipping and all that.. or at least I think that's a pretty good bargain, I dunno).

BUT, now I have something much more exciting to post about!

I made some new friends on Facebook who are into dolls. And much to my surprise, they even live in the same state as me! One of them also pointed me in the direction of a local doll shop. I had no idea there was a BJD store right in my town! O: AND they have a meet-up group that meets once a month. The meet-up is a bit of a distance from me, but that's also good because I'd rather kinda go out of town that possibly run into local people that know me.

See, the truth is, no one in real life knows about this side of my personality - being a Japanophile, playing with dolls, my interest in Lolita fashion and lifestyle, etc.

But anyway, I'm really super excited. The next meet-up is really soon, but I think I actually might be able to make it.